When I grow up, I want to be a dog.
Not the wild and wiry type you often see eating garbage in the gutters of developing nations, but the one living right now in your beautiful house.
Most of the dogs I’ve met have it pretty good, and are living far better lives than I am. They have someone to feed them, bathe them, brush them and chauffeur them all around town, up to drive-through windows where they get free food.
A dog never has to cook for itself, clean up after itself, or mind its manners. You can sniff whatever you want, and lift your leg whenever and wherever you please.
You can chew up furniture, dig up the lawn, and yap at anyone who happens by; and not only will you be rewarded for this with a life of luxury, but otherwise normal people will go out of their way to treat you better than they treat their fellow human beings.
Yes, a dog’s life is the life for me.
It is hard to pinpoint just where we lost our way in relation to dogs.
I think it happened when they ceased to be used for work, and came inside to be trophies instead of tools. The dog is now an indoor pet.
Leave one outside for any length of time, and you will be told by someone who cares just how cruel you are. This is the same someone who couldn’t care less that homeless human beings are living in the street every night and day.
It doesn’t matter that they’re living off garbage, so long as the dog doesn’t get into it and make a mess on the kitchen floor.
My brother once dated a girl who smoked in her car, but never when the dog was in it. When he asked why she smoked when he was in the car, she said it was because the dog couldn’t ask her to stop. When he asked her to stop, she refused.
They weren’t together for long after that, but at least she has a dog to share a bed with now.
I understand the basic human need for companionship, to love and be loved, and how dogs fill that gap nicely for many folks. What eludes me is how people can so easily put dogs above their respect for human life.
Imagine if I were a Prime Minister instead of a dog (which some might argue is the same thing) and passed a law forbidding pets in this country; asking instead that all the money, time and energy wasted on pets be put into reducing the deficit, repairing infrastructure and aiding the poor.
Get rid of my dog?
Not on your life Mr. Prime Minister!
And then I would be beaten worse than any dog ever was, and left to suffer in the street.
Be good to your dogs. Love them and care for them. Just take the time to treat those around you with an equal courtesy.